Two killers at large after escaping open prisons, confirms Shatter

Alan Shatter has confirmed there are two other prisoners in homicide related cases that remain at large after walking free from “open prisons”.

The justice minister said that along with Donegal man, Martin McDermott, 26, there were two other prisoners serving sentences for homicide offences who were unlawfully at large.

Last month, McDermott — who was serving a seven-year sentence for the manslaughter of Garda Gary McLaughlin — walked free from a low-security facility, Loughan prison in Co Cavan.

Mr McDermott was later arrested in the North where he is currently serving a sentence.

In a written Dáil response to Fianna Fáil Justice spokesman Dara Calleary on the issue, Mr Shatter confirmed: “Two prisoners were serving sentences for dangerous driving causing death and have been unlawfully at large since 24 November 2004 and 14 June 2010 respectively.”

Mr Shatter said that Mr McDermott would be subject to a European arrest warrant in due course.

Last night, Mr Calleary said he intended to find out from Mr Shatter if the victims’ families in the two other cases have been informed the perpetrators were at large.

“It would be completely wrong if they have not been.”

He said that he would also be asking the minister: “What efforts have been made to apprehend these individuals and if they are outside the jurisdiction are extradition proceedings in train?”

Mr Calleary said it was wrong that prisoners sentenced where someone had lost their life should be in an open prison.

In his reply, Mr Shatter did not provide any additional details as to what open prisons the two escaped from or how long each had left to serve.

The minister said: “New procedures have been put in place to ensure that where consideration is being given to the transfer of a prisoner serving a sentence for a homicide offence to an open centre, that decision must be made by the director general of the Irish Prison Service”.

An Irish Prison Service report into McDermott’s escape revealed that he had previously absconded from Loughan House in 2007 while in custody for a previous offence.

Mr Shatter said: “Prisoners serving short sentences, ie under 12 months, can be moved to an open centre shortly after committal... Those convicted of offences resulting in the loss of life are not precluded for consideration and have frequently been transferred to open centres in the past.”